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Lviv Autocephalous Orthodox Brotherhood Questions Unification Sobor

25.10.2005, [00:07] // UAOC //

Lviv – A statement from the presidium of the Lviv National Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-called Apostle dated 18 October 2005 states that information about the decrees of the Hierarchal Sobor (Assembly) and the Patriarchal Council of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) from 11 October 2005, at which unification of the UAOC with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate (UOC-KP) was discussed, does not correspond to reality. The brotherhood also notes that the decree was not signed by all hierarchs and members of the Patriarchal Council of the UAOC.

“Three members of the Patriarchal Council were absent from the meeting: Archbishop Ihor [Isichenko], Yevhen Sverstiuk and Roman Maksymovych. The minutes of the meeting were not signed by Archbishop Makarii of Lviv, who was present there. The members of the Patriarchal Council from the laity (Yevhen Sverstiuk and Roman Maksymovych) have not been invited to the council’s meetings for two years now,” the text of the statement reads.

It is also emphasized in the document that “the Lviv National Brotherhood of St. Andrew the Apostle remains faithful to the Testaments of Patriarch Mstyslav and Patriarch Dymytrii and follows the decisions of the 2000 National Sobor [Assembly] of the UAOC.”

RISU note: The Patriarchal Council of the UAOC, with its present membership, was formed from the National Sobor (Assembly) of the UAOC in September 2000. After that, because of the schism inside the UAOC, Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko) was expelled in 2003. The brotherhood of the UAOC does not support the position of Metropolitan Mefodii (Kudriakov), head of the UAOC. Archbishop Ihor and the brotherhood see the solution of the indefinite status of the UAOC in adherence to the idea of the Testament of the late Patriarch Dymytri (Yarema): unification with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the USA and the UAOC in the diaspora, who are in canonical union with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Source of news and note: press service of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew the First-called Apostle

• http://www.risu.org.ua/ukr/news/article;3061/